Review

Based on an American crime drama television series, CSI: Crime City is a new Facebook game which focuses on investigating the crime scene. Developed by Area/Code and published by Ubisoft along with CBS Consumer Products, the game provides fans the CSI gameplay experience to be private investigators to solve various criminal cases. Since the television show CSI: Crime Scene Investigation is an outstanding drama series, CSI: Crime City is sure to create massive attraction from both faithful CSI fans and Facebook players.

CSI: Crime City is an interesting social game with appealing storylines and different specific cases in Las Vegas, the sin city full of murder crimes. When players select a case for the first time, there will play an animation showcasing the detailed story, just like in a TV show. Players can select to skip the animation by using the “Skip” icon on the upper right corner. The first case takes place on the top of a mansion with a victim drowned in the hot tub. According to a short tutorial, players can easily catch the game step by step, including exploring the criminal spot, finding the important evidences, using the special tools and more. 

In the game, players spend a certain amount of energy for searching out the clues in the spot made up of tiles. Actually, this part is something like the feature for the treasure hunting games. Otherwise, CSI: Crime City focuses on solving the cases rather than hunting for treasures. From the search, players can be awarded EXP, money, and even important evidence relating to the murder.

Sometimes, the tiles containing more suspicious stuff need special tools to search with, for example, a flashlight to trace the blood, a pair of tweezers to extract the fibers, a print kit to dust the prints, and a camera to find out more details. Without the special tools, players are not allowed to explore the special trace tiles. Of course, the trace tiles cost more energy which will be refilled over time or by using the energy boost items. Happily, it won’t take long to regain the energy. In addition, it is much funnier to play an extra mini game when searching tiles. The focus challenge offers players a chance to match the same pairs to earn coffee used for energy boost as a reward. The more pairs players solve, the more energy they will obtain.

Sometimes, players will find a blue arrow in the process of investigation, revealing the clue for specific evidence. These evidences are the key objects to solve a murder case. In order to analyze the evidence, players send it back to the CSI lab to discover more details. Imitating the plot in the TV show, CSI lab is another key feature in CSI: Crime City. Players have to build the own lab because the lab only has one basic station to analyze the evidence at the first stage. By using the money earned from investigating the cases, players can buy six types of stations like DNA Sequencer, Ballistics Station, Microscope, Light Table, Work Bench and Chemical Analyzer. Through the agent’s notes for the evidence, players may smell out the murder scheme and send the criminal to jail for life. If players lack those stations to find out more details, visit the friends’ labs to call for a help. In the meantime, players are able to customize the lab with various decorations from the store. It is pleasing to beautify the lab with multiple categories of decorations.

The cases are listed in the mission mode with attractive stories in CSI: Crime City. Searching for clues, finding out the evidence, talking to the suspects, the game provides a great plot along with the similar CSI episodes. Including well-known characters from the show like Jim Brass and Catherine Willows, players can explore Las Vegas for its unique locations, casinos, hotel suites and night clubs. As players level up, they are closer to a real detective.

At the moment, CSI: Crime City is in the beta phase. Therefore, some features like avatar customization will be available in the near future. Furthermore, Ubisoft is cooperating with the writers of CSI to develop more cases and gameplay. Everyone can use his Facebook account to partcipate in the game and distinguish himself among friends. Jump into the world of Crime City, and become a great detective.

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